Given the increasing levels of air pollution, understanding the direct shielding response of the skin to air pollutants as a whole under exclusion of the influence from the inside of body is important. We applied topically the water soluble ambient air pollutants to the mouse skin and observed the histological response using 0.3 mM of H₂SO₃ as a positive control. Water soluble air pollutants samples, WSAP24h and WSA72h, were collected by pumping the outdoor air into ddH₂O for 24 and 72 h respectively during two periods with different air quality index (AQI). Morphological examination showed apparent thickening of the epidermal layer in the H₂SO₃ skin section and in the sections applied with WSAP24h and WSAP72h without significant difference in the extent of epidermal hyperplasia among three groups. The cell viability assay showed no cytotoxic effect by the treatment of H₂SO₃ and WSAP24h in human skin fibroblast WS-1 cells. WSAP72h sample revealed a dose-dependent cytotoxicity to skin fibroblasts at 48 hr. The evidences indicated that the barrier function of the skin by epidermis hyperplasia could be activated by the insult of a component of air pollution, and the protection could be hold against a more complex and concentrated ambient air pollutants.

考虑到空气污染水平的不断提高，在不考虑人体内部影响的情况下，了解皮肤对整个空气污染物的直接屏蔽反应非常重要。我们将水溶性环境空气污染物局部应用到小鼠皮肤上，并观察到使用0.3 mM H ₂ SO ₃作为阳性对照的组织学反应。在两个不同空气质量指数（AQI）的时段内，分别将室外空气分别抽入ddH ₂ O中24小时和72小时，收集了水溶性空气污染物样品WSAP24h和WSA72h 。形态学检查显示H ₂ SO ₃中表皮层明显增厚皮肤切片以及在使用WSAP24h和WSAP72h的切片中，三组的表皮增生程度没有显着差异。细胞活力测定显示，通过处理H ₂ SO ₃和WSAP24h对人皮肤成纤维细胞WS-1细胞无细胞毒性作用。WSAP72h样品显示48小时对皮肤成纤维细胞的剂量依赖性细胞毒性。有证据表明，表皮增生引起的皮肤屏障功能可以通过污染某种空气成分而激活，并且可以针对更复杂和更集中的环境空气污染物进行保护。